The Globalization Grinch Who Sponsored Christmas
Inside my first night’s hotel room, a bulky television set tilted semi-securely on an overhead wall bracket–that is as long as no one accidentally opened the door too far. In such a case, the careless soul would instantly be snatched from the gene pool by natural selection. If one avoided death-by-Sony, the ceiling fan wobbled like a fat kid with a hoola-hoop at approximately gringo eye-level. If one bypassed the whirling cornea-transplant, the shower offered a water-heating device consisting of an on/off switch attached to tangled wires wrapped around the showerhead with exposed live ends dangling inches from the water flow. After surviving this mid-range Guatemalan hotel, it seemed only fair to me that those living in safe little hovels should have to contend with execution squads.
By Lyn Fox.
“We Are At War”
In its first public viewing, Della McCarthy’s suicide video was then shown to journalists. The footage is a chilling reminder of the martyrdom videos broadcast during the trial of eight men accused of plotting to bomb transatlantic airliners with home-made liquid explosives. In the film shot in her bedroom, Della is dressed in school uniform and reading from a prepared script written in a red exercise book. The handwriting in an exercise book found at the McCarthy’s home, has been confirmed as Della’s. What follows is an unedited transcript of what she read out in the video.
By Melissa Mann.